How To Make Money | Three Month Update

Three months have passed since I started the quest to make a million dollars in under 5 years. I started this project with a multi pronged approach.

  • Invest in the stock market by contributing heavily to a brokerage account.
  • Increase the level of my monthly contributions by living frugally.
  • Increase the level of my monthly contributions by finding new ways to earn money above and beyond the salary from my day job.

Best Home Based Business Ideas

Finding new ways to earn money centered around the concept of home based businesses that I could run from home. I needed something I could do in my off hours that required very little start up cost and extremely flexible hours. I did whirlwind research, reading books, googling into the wee hours, brainstorming with friends. I’m losing money so far but not much. That’s ok. Three months is early in the game. I never expected to be raking in the cash at this point.

Frugal Living

Changing my spending habits on the other hand reaped immediate rewards. With just a few changes to my daily routines I’ve trimmed $200 a month from my living expenses. Wish I had started that 20 years ago. I’d be $260,000 closer to my goal.
Mostly this first three months was a head long charge up the steepest part of  the entrepreneur’s learning curve. I crammed a lot of knowledge into my head about starting an online business, niche content sites, site monetization, web hosting services, Search Engine Optimization and Entrepreneurship in general.
I’ve taken my first steps building sites. I have three small sites including this blog up. They are just experiments at this point. I’ve monetized them with google adsense and Amazon. Amazingly, I have gotten the occasional click here and there. I really did not expect anyone to even find my sites yet much less click on the ads. It is a proof of concept at the very least. Put up a site with content and ads, if people come to your site, some will click the ads.

Entrepreneur’s Mindset

The biggest thing to happen over the last 3 months is a shift in me. I’ve never thought much about making a lot of money. I’ve always make enough to be comfortable and that was fine with me. Now I have goals that require much more money. So, making money is a big focus. The amazing thing is how that shift in focus changes the way you see the world. Everywhere I look now I see potential ways to make a buck. People I’ve know for years are now approaching me with their ideas for businesses. This shift is likely at the root of the oft repeated personal development guru’s claims that wealth can be manifested by consciously believing it can. I think the nugget of truth behind that belief is that focusing on making money opens your eyes to all the possible ways you can make money that you would have missed before. You begin to see the world through a new lens, a lens that highlights potential business opportunities.

Where am I in a nutshell after three months

Starting point Now Need to be Difference
Net Wealth 130,000 139,000 159,500 (19500)
Invest/Month 800 1000 8900 (7900)

October 8th, 2007 - Posted in Road to a million | | 0 Comments

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